DA raises concerns after psychiatric patients assault staff at Helen Joseph Hospital

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has raised concerns about psychiatric patients assaulting staff at the Helen Joseph Hospital.

The party said psychiatric patients at the hospital have assaulted at least 32 staff members and caused extensive property damage in the past year.

The grim figures were revealed in a written reply by Gauteng Health MEC Nomathemba Mokgethi to questions by DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Health Jack Bloom in the Gauteng Legislature.

Bloom said the number of attacks has increased because of the influx in psychiatric patients after the fire at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Hospital closed their psychiatric unit.

“Reported incidents include two nurses and a psychiatrist have been bitten, a nurse was hit by a patient who broke her glasses, a guard was stabbed with a knife and ended up in casualty with a collapsed lung. His assailant escaped from the psychiatric ward but was apprehended by police at the hospital entrance.”

Bloom said a psychiatric patient also picked up a wheelchair and tried to throw it at staff, and then broke off a bar from his bed and wielded it as a weapon

He said claims there are only 45 beds for psychiatric patients but the hospital sees about 90 psychiatric patients every day.

“Desperate staff phone other psychiatric units every day for possible beds but mostly none are available. According to Mokgethi, they have also “attempted to discharge patients who, despite not yet being psychiatrically well, are deemed a low risk and have opened a discharge clinic on a Monday to review these patients in the outpatient department.”

Last year, the Life Esidimeni inquest into the death of 144 patients due to neglect, dehydration and hunger showed why ‘mental health must be taken seriously’

The deaths occurred between April 2016 and January 2017, many from pneumonia, dehydration and diarrhoea, after the patients were transferred from private hospitals to under-resourced facilities in an attempt to cut costs.

Bloom said extra staff and security is urgently needed at this hospital citing the continuing closure of the psychiatric wards at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Hospital and the general shortage of beds in the province for mental health patients.

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